The alchemy of change now becomes obvious in Toru’s outlook. From French and English interests she becomes more and more engrossed in India. The Ballads— the most mature of her writing-’ are of Indian themes and it is in these that she excels. Here ‘we see Toru no longer attempting vainly, though heroically, to compete with European literature on its own ground, but turning to the legends of her own race and country for inspiration.
Toru was no sooner dead than she began to be famous. In the meantime her unfinished English novel Bianca or the Young Spanish Maiden appeared in the Bengal Magazine in Jan-April 1878 and her French novel, Le Journal de Mademoiselle d’Arvers had been issued in Paris in 1879 and had been hailed as an extraordinary feat, with precedent. And all this by a sick girl who had known pain and been shadowed by a sense of fatality, in the course of three or four years.
Although like Shelley and Keats, Toru Dutt, died in the prime of her youth showing only a bud of promise rather than the fully blossomed rose of fulfillment, her place in the galaxy of the “sages standing in God’s holy fire is permanent.”65
References :
T. S. Eliot, “Matthew Arnold” In The Use Of Poetry And The Use Of Criticism, (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1933),
Mario Praz, The Romantic Agony, (Oxford University Press, London, 1970),
Richard Ellmann, Golden Codgers, (University press, London, 1973),
Edmond Gosse, ‘Introductory Memoir’, Ancient Ballads,
K.R.S. Iyengar, Indian Writing in English (Sterling Publishers, New Delhi, 1985),
Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India, (Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, Pondicherry, 1973),
K. R. S. Iyengar, Indian Writing in English,
Sri Aurobindo, The Renaissance in India,
T.S.Eliot, The Waste Land and Other Poems, (Penguin Classics, 1998),
Syed Nurullah and J. P. Naik, A Student’s History of Education in India; (Macmillan and co Ltd, Bombay, 1949),
K. R. S. Iyengar, The Indian Contribution to English Literature, (Karnataka Publishing House, Bombay, 1945),
Ibid.
Sunanda P.Chavan, The Fair Voice, A Study of Indian Woman Poets in English, (Sterling Publishers, 1984),
K. R. S. Iyengar, Indian Writing in English,
Ibid.
Ibid.
A. N. Dwivedi, Toru Dutt : A Literary Profile,(B.R.Publications, Delhi, 1998)
K. R. S. Iyengar, Indian Writing in English,
R. C. Majumdar, et al., British Paramountcy and Indian Renaissance, Part ii (Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan, 1965),
Ibid.
Ibid.
Eliot Waltor Mdge’s 1904 Lecture on Henry Derozio- The Eurasian Poet and Reformer has been reprinted (1947) by S. R. Choudhari.
Dunn, op. cit, The Bengal Book of English Verse. ( Longmans, Bombay 1918),
P. C. Kotoky, Indo- English Poetry, (The University Press,Gauhati, 1969),
A. Clifford, Appendix iii The Life and Letters of Toru Dutt by Harihar Das, (Oxford university publication,1921),
Harihar Das, LLTD,
Ibid. p.1128. K. R. S. Iyengar, Indian Writing in English,
Harihar Das, LLTD,
Ibid.
Ibid.
A. N. Dwivedi, Toru Dutt : A Literary Profile,
Edmond Gosse, ‘Introductory Memoir’,
Ibid.
Harihar Das, LLTD,
Essais de Litterature Anglaise, quoted in LLTD ,
Jyotish Chandra Das Gupta, Toru Dutt,, National Biography for India,4 (1914),
Margret Macnicol, Poems by Indian Women, The Heritage of India Series, (Oxford University Press,1923),
Edmond W. Gosse, ‘Introductory Memoir’,
P. C. Kotoky, Indo-English Poetry,
K. R. S. Iyengar, Indian Writing in English ,
Edmond W. Gosse, ‘Introductory Memoir’,
Ibid-
Govin Chunder Dutt, ‘Prefatory Memoir’, Ancient Ballads,
K. R. S. Iyengar, Indian Writing in English,
Toru Dutt, A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields, (Kegan Paul and Company London 1880),
K. R. S. Iyengar, Indian Writing in English,
Sheaf,
Harihar Das, LLTD,
K. R. S. Iyengar, Indian Writing in English,
Harihar Das, LLTD,
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Amarnath Jha, ‘Introductory Memoir’, Ancient Ballads,
Toru Dutt, Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan, (Kitabistan, Allahabad, 1969),
Edmond Gosse, ‘Introductory Memoir’, Ancient Ballads,
Harihar Das, LLTD,
Edmond Gosse, ‘Introductory Memoir’,
Ibid.
The Collected Poems of W.B.Yeats, (Macmillan-London),
02. Her Works – Themes
Toru Dutt was a gifted poet who dedicated her whole life to poetic composition. Prior to Toru, Derozio started the idea, Ghose and all the Dutts dug the trenches and sent out saps and feelers here and there but it is Toru Dutt who brought to fruition the efforts of her predecessors in a remarkable fashion. Though mocked by destiny at every step, she went ahead with her work with renewed zeal and firm determination. She wrote very fast as may be gathered from the fact that within a span of three years she produced no fewer than four literary volumes, not to speak of her illuminating essays, letters and translations of speeches in French. She perhaps heard, (as Lowell surmises) What Keats did, a voice urging ‘What thou doest, do quickly’ and when her dear sister, Aru, died of consumption like her only brother, Abju, she became almost certain that she would also meet the same fate. Thereafter she like, Keats again, began working with all the restless energy of a haunted creative writer.
Toru appeared in print for the first time in December 1874 when her two essays found place in the Bengal Magazine edited by the Rev. Lal Bahari Dey. These are the only essays; she is known to have written during her lifetime. One of these essays was on Leconete de Leisle together with some translations of his poems, and the other on Henry Vivian Derozio. Toru had a soft corner for Leisle, and it is not just a matter of chance that the Sheaf opens with a rendering of his poem The Sleep of the Condor. In fact, the austere poet of La Mort de Valmiki wielded a great charm for the poet of Sita and Sindhu.
In June and July 1875 appeared A Scene from Contemporary History, consisting of two translations in prose made by Toru Dutt from two speeches delivered not long ago, in the French Legislative Assembly by Victor Hugo and M. Theirs, together with a specimen of the poetry of the former.
The first translation is part of the speech delivered by victor Hugo on July 17, 1851. It belongs to that stormy period of French history, which is related with the second Revolution following the abdication of the throne by Louis-Philippe in 1848.
The second translation deals with a later period of French history, and describes another steamy scene in the French Legislative Assembly, which occurred on July 15, 1870, when for more than two years the possibility of a Franco-Prussian war had threatened Europe.
Toru’s translations vividly reproduce the two historic scenes in the French Legislative Assembly and enable the reader to have an idea of the nature of the discussions and of the oratorical powers of the speakers. They show that she had crossed the stage of slavish and literal translations. In several passages, she aptly expressed the thought of the speaker. She fails, however, to do so uniformly and some of her renderings are not as happy or suitable as they should have been. The poem which Toru Dutt has given us as a specimen was one in which Hugo made his assessment of the character and deeds of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte and contrasted him with his great predecessor. It is Napoleon Le Petit, which originally appeared in the volume of poetry, entitled ‘Les Chatiments.
A Sheaf Gleaned in French Fields appeared in March 1876. This is the only work that Toru Dutt saw published in her lifetime.
The reviews of A Sheaf Gleaned in
French Fields were generally fine and favourable. The reviewers welcomed the volume in such papers and periodicals as The Hindu, Patriot, the Englishman and the Indian Charivari. About the article in the Englishman, Toru remarked that it was “generous and candid pointing out some mistakes in the versifying, but altogether very favourable and sincere, with some extracts from the book, namely to Papa by Musset, and the last sonnet addressed to Papa”.1
In August 1876, The Examiner of London published a two-column review by Sir Gosse who was greatly surprised to see the renderings by an ‘Indian girl’ into the measure of the original. Toru possessed the rare virtue of absolute and unaffected exactness even at the expense of losing her poetic value; she “made a True translation. Gosse’s was the best review written on A sheaf Gleaned in French Fields, and Toru thanked the reviewer most heartily.2
E. J. Thompson also reviewed the book and observed “Toru Dutt remains one of the most astonishing women that ever lived, a woman whose place is with Sappho and Emily Bronte, Fiery and unconquerable of soul as they….. . These poems are sufficient to place Toru Dutt in the small class of women who have written English verse that can stand.” The Sheaf is remarkable after other fashion. Merely to have translated so much and so well from one alien tongue into another must be a feat hardly paralleled and the book contains much work that is individual and beautiful”.3
The French papers also did not lag behind in praise of the book. The Courier de l; Europe contained a small notice by Chatelaine and the Revee des Doux Mondes published a good review by Andre Thouriet.
Toru specially gleaned her Sheaf from that field of French poetry, which is generally characterized as the Romantic School. The school that sought to express freely the thought and feeling of individuals in a moving diction and metre. In France, the main exponents of this school were Victor Hugo and Sainte–Beuve. It also included Gautier, Gerard de Nerval, Banville, Deschamps, Leconte de Lisle and many others in its rank.
Though the main concern of Toru Dutt is the Romantic School of French poetry, she does not confine herself to those limits. She thus gives us a few pieces from the poets of the transition, such as Chenier, Courier, Beranger and Lamartine. She goes even farther back and gives glimpses of the work of Parny and de Florien of the eighteenth Century, of Scarron and P. Corneille of the Seventeenth and of du Bartas and du Bellay of the sixteenth century. These form but a brief introduction to the main theme of her volume. Besides these, Toru translates the work of those poets who stood a little apart from the Romantic school namely de Vigny, de Musset, Barbier, Brizeux, Moreau, Dupont, Mme.Ackermann and Mme. Val more. Toru’s work is an admirable help to a student anxious to get a general idea of French poetry in the nineteenth century. Mile Bader thinks that it was Toru’s Indian birth and upbringing, which caused the poetry of the nineteenth century to appeal to her most than the poems of the classical school.
We see in her pages the secret of Beranger’s popularity with the masses and the plaintiveness that helps to make the lyrics of Mme Valmore so attractive. We get a glimpse of de Musset’s unrequited love and acquaintance with philosophic thought, as well as of the ties that bound Brizeux to Brittany. The two poems that bear de Vigny’s name represent himself as well as his work. He was the thinker among the poets of his time and stood to some extent apart, and his picture of Moses climbing Pisgah’s height is the personification of the burden of loneliness that often has to be borne by genius. Barbier’s admiration for Italy and its artists, Gautier’s proclivity for unusual words, not infrequently associated with the Orient, de Nerval’s idealism and admiration for the past, de Lisle’s recourse of foreign climes or literature for his subjects, and Dupont’s sympathy with rural toilers all these are reflected, and much more. Names of poets not so familiar out of France are thus brought before the English-reading Public.4
However, the fact remains that the Romanticists Hugo, Soulary and de Gramont – are the basis of the volume. Evidently, Hugo was Toru’s favourite and she gave him more space than to anyone else. Her renderings have succeeded in capturing the charm and delicacy of Hugo’s French poems and the vigour and variety of his diction. Hugo’s multipronged personality peeps through them.
F. de Gramont is represented in the Sheaf with 17 poems and J. Soulary with 14. Their immaculate skill in sonneteering induced the translatress to give them this representation. Out of 17 pieces by Gramont selected for translation, 15 are sonnets. One of his best sonnets is Sonnet Freedom according to Toru’s biographer, Hariher Das, the translator “seems to have been rather partial to the translation of sonnets”.5
Among other poets T. Gautier and Sainte Beuve are represented by six and five translations respectively, Barbier, Leconte de Lisle, Mme. Valmore and Lamartine, by four translations each, while many others by three, two, or one.
A cursory glance at the book convinces that Toru was not pursuing her work methodically and that is why she did not allot space to individual poets according to their established positions in French poetry. Thus, Grarmont is over represented, while Lamartine, whose place is beside Hugo, does not receive adequate attention, although the translatress thought of Lamartine and Laparde highly. Yet versions of but four of Lamartine’s poems are given and only one of Laparde’s.
Thematically, many of the poems in the Sheaf are patriotic in content and others deal with different themes – doves and butterflies and swallows, homely joys and simple scenes, kindness and bravery, child life and ideal manhood. In the Romantic School, she found what her fellow citizens have always loved, viz. the life-like and dramatic reproduction of the sentiments of the heart, the wealth of imagery and the warmth of colour. 6 One such poem is Gensoul’s My village which is partly given below:
Oh fair sky of my native land,
How much I miss thee here!
And thee, Oh home – oh sweet retreat!
I ever held so dear,
Canst thou not, Sun, that openest now
The summer’s treasures free,
Give back to me my sky and home,
My life and gaiety! 7
Hugo’s After the Battle, Gramont’s Sonnet Freedom and Berut’s My Normandy are full of patriotic instincts. The second stanza of My Normandy is reproduced below:
But while I hailed each foreign spot,
I murmured to myself – on earth
A lovelier land existeth not
Than Normandy, that gave me birth.8
However, Toru was more inclined towards pathetic subjects – those that spoke of “separation and loneliness, exile and captivity, illusion and dejection, loss and bereavement, declining seasons and premature death.9 In many pieces, we witness a lingering note of pathos and frustration.
Sir Edmund Gosse exclaimed “When poetry is as good as this it does not much matter whether Rouveyre prints it upon Whatman paper or whether it steals to light in blurred type from some press in Bhowanipor.” 10
Bianca or the Young Spanish Maiden
After Toru’s death her father examined her papers and found, among other things an unfinished romance in English, entitled Bianca or the Young Spanish Maiden and another a complete French novel called Le Journal de Mademoiselle d` Arvers.
Bianca is a fragment, Eight Chapters and a portion of ninth, appeared serially in the Bengal Magazine between January and April 1878.
The tale of romance is very tender and pathetic. The circumstances of the heroine, Bianca Garcia have “some touching resemblances” 11 with those of the creator of the romance. The story starts with the death of lnez, the elder sister of Bianca and the funeral on a cold February day. Bianca and her father mourn the death with broken hearts.
Bianca is overwhelmed with grief and Martha, her Scottish maid persuades her to try to forget the loss. After a lapse of more than a year Walter Ingram, her dead sister’s fiancé visits Bianca and wants to marry her. “He was a rather handsome young man of about twenty four with a frank countenance fair hair, and pale blue eyes; his lips were full but they lacked firmness, in structur
e he was of middle height”.12 Bianca tells him plainly that she can give him nothing more than sisterly love and tries to console her. In the meantime her father had died. Ingram still loves lnez, they meet at this time Lady Moore and her son, and daughter. Bianca falls in love with Lord Moore, the son. There are family objections to the marriage with Lord Moore, but Lord Moore requested his mother to be soft towards Bianca, who may be penniless but full of womanly virtues and hence his would be wife.
The ninth chapter, which is also the last one, tells of the parting of the two lovers as lord Moore goes off to the Crimean war. However, before he goes away he takes off a small ring and slides it on her marriage finger, and assures her of his return back soon. The story breaks off abruptly.
This romance is apparently an unrevised fragment and has some inconsistencies, but the reader should not forget the fact that the story is not complete and had Toru time she would have removed these shortcomings on a second reading.
There are obvious autobiographical overtones in the novel. At the time of writing Bianca the death of Aru clouds the writers mind and an element of morbidity enters the novel. Bianca is in some way a projection of Toru himself. The story reflects her talents, attainments, and character, her poetic imagination and power of description, her intimate acquaintance with English and French literature, and, above all, her deeply religious nature.
Le Journal de Mademoiselle d’ Arvers
This novel was published in 1879, under the editorial care of Mlle Clarisse Bader. The French authoress looked after the publication of the novel and wrote an introduction. It was dedicated to his Excellency Lord Lytton, Viceroy of India, with “temoignange de profonde recomaissance”. It is a successful and complete novel and according to Radhakamal Mukerjee, “an extraordinary feat, without precedent.”13
Le Journal de Mademoiselle d`Arvers is an attempt to reproduce scenes from the life of French society in the sixties of last century, and is peculiarly interesting because of the astonishing revelation it gives of the mind and accomplishments of its writer.14
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